Organic vs Paid Installs

Organic installs are downloads earned without direct ad spend — through search, charts, featuring, word of mouth, and referrals. Paid installs come from advertising channels like Apple Search Ads, social, or networks. The distinction matters because organic installs have near-zero marginal cost and tend to retain better.

The two interact. Paid campaigns that spike installs can lift chart and keyword rankings, which in turn generate additional organic installs — a phenomenon called organic uplift. Strong ASO, meanwhile, raises the conversion rate of paid traffic.

A durable growth model uses paid to seed velocity and ASO to compound it into a growing base of free, high-quality organic installs.